Seasonal Wild Flowers

Dyer's Greenweed

Genista tinctoria subsp. tinctoria

Fabaceae

June to August

Subsp. tinctoria is scattered throughout the country, but is

most common in the South and West, and parts of the

Northwest and East Anglia.

See the BSBI distribution map for Dyer's Greenweed

Subsp. tinctoria is found in rough grassy places such as

pasture, old meadows, heaths and cliffs, and by roads

and fields.

Subsp. littoralis is found on cliff-top grassland and maritime

heaths in Cornwall.

Dyer’s Greenweed subsp. tinctoria is a native, deciduous,

small, bushy, nitrogen-fiving, spineless shrub, growing

up to 60cm.

The flowers are bright yellow, up to 1.5cm, and in

short spikes.

The keel and the standard petals are roughly equa

l in size.

Leaves are greyish, extended ovals.

It used to be collected for the production of a

yellow dye.

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Dyer's Greenweed, Cogden, Dorset

Flower spike - dark anthers

Single flower -immature anthers

Leaves